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Body of teen swept into storm sewer found

Rescue crews peered beneath manhole covers, used sonar in a lake and kept divers on standby in the search for a teenager who was swept away in a Cedar Rapids storm drain after heavy rainfall overwhelmed the eastern Iowa city's sewer system.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — The body of a teenager swept into a storm drain in Cedar Rapids has been found more than a mile away in a lake, police said Tuesday.

Police said firefighters searching in a boat found the body of 17-year-old Logan Blake in Cedar Lake. He was in 3 feet of water, about 75 yards from the shore.

The body is being taken to a local hospital and the state medical examiner will determine the cause of death.

Blake was with friends Monday evening on the grounds of an elementary school when he was pulled into the drain by fast-moving water. Cedar Rapids and much of eastern Iowa have been pounded in the past few days by torrential rains that have overwhelmed sewer systems.

Jim Coyle, who was Blake's pastor and is a chaplain for Cedar Rapids fire and police, said the teen's parents are mourning the loss of "an incredible son."

"The family is so grateful for all of the volunteers that have come here and poured their life and their heart and their passion in trying to see a better result," Coyle said. "I can guarantee you everything we have done here, with the police, fire department and all the volunteers on behalf of this family, was to see Logan. Unfortunately it was not a good result."

Through the day, firefighters, police and about 60 volunteers searched the lake and sewer system in hopes of finding Blake.

"Everybody was hoping for a better outcome to this," said Greg Buelow, the city public safety communications coordinator.

On Monday night, Blake's friend David Bliss, 17, tried to save the teen, but he was also dragged into the drain. Bliss traveled along the drain until emerging in Cedar Lake. The boy walked to a hospital and was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

Fire department crews used sonar to search the body of water. A dive team also went in the lake.

Buelow said the storm drain feeds into an underground concrete pipe about 4 1/2 feet wide at the school's culvert entrance. That pipe runs about a mile and a half southwest and is 10 feet in diameter where it empties into Cedar Lake.

One expert questioned whether the drain complied with safety criteria recommended for the industry, and said the teen's disappearance was part of a national problem.

Any drain that is wider than 48 inches or long enough that one cannot see daylight at the end should generally have a safety grate, said Ken MacKenzie, a committee chair for the National Association of Flood & Stormwater Management Agencies.

"If there was a 54-inch diameter pipe next to an elementary school without a safety grate on the inlet, that was a dangerous situation that could have been prevented." he said.

Craig Hanson, director of the Cedar Rapids public works department, said the drain had been there for decades without a problem. He said, to the city's knowledge, it's never had a grate, in part because of fears that it could get clogged and flood the neighborhood. The city probably will review the safety of its system, he said.